Waxing Tragic
by as mad as rabbits
Summary: Gabriella is assaulted and insists on going about her life like nothing has happened, despite frequent out-bursts and a now-fragile mindset. Troy sees this and wants to help, but she won't let him. Among other miseries, of course. Troy x Gabriella.
1. prologue

**Author's notes: Well, look at me, attempting to make myself at home in the **_**High School Musical **_**section. Ha. This is basically the physical manifestation of my undeniable love of all things overly-dramatic and angst-y. You all know you love it, too. **

**Some things you will need to know, so I don't accidentally offend anyone: **

**This deals with some heavy issues. Sexual abuse, eating disorders, etc., etc. **

**The rating will not go any higher than T. I promise. I don't write smut or anything like that. **

**As far as pairings go, this will be Troyella. No matter what weird things happen between them, in the end, it will be Troyella. K. As far as the other characters go, I'm not sure what I'm wanting to do with them.**

**If you read this and enjoy it, or even if you read it and hate it, leave me a review. I would really love that. Pleaseee do not this to your favorites/alerts without reviewing. I cannot stress that enough. I'm not gonna, like, hold chapters hostage until I get so many reviews or anything. I'm just sayin'. **

**As far as timeline, this starts about a week before their Senior year begins and will eventually merge with the HSM3 plot. It could stray a bit into AU, but hopefully not much.**

**Well, without further ado:**

**The prologue:**

* * *

Gabriella's hands were shaking as she straightened up her disheveled clothes and made an attempt to pull her messy hair back up into a ponytail.

She was bleeding--- but just a little bit and her mind was going in thousands of directions at once.

First, _first: _she needed to calm down and remind herself that it could have been worse.

She could have been killed.

Gabriella let out a hoarse chuckle. What was she doing, finding a redeeming quality in a rapist? Why wasn't she screaming, crying, and crawling home in a fit of mass hysterics? Wasn't that what girls were _supposed _to do when they had their bodies and innocence abused and stolen?

Girls go for walks in the park.

Girls go for walks in the park _all the time_.

And mean wait for those girls in the bushes.

Men wait and watch, like hawks, and girls are pinned down.

Gabriella took a deep breath. She pulled her cellphone out of her purse and nervously dialed Troy's number.

"Hello?" Troy's voice was groggy.

"T-troy? Did I wake you up?"

"Uhm… yeah…" Troy's voice trailed off into a yawn. Gabriella could see him now, trying to blink away his sleepiness and gain control of his thoughts.

"… Troy?"

"Huh? Oh. Yeah. I was just taking a nap."

"It's a little late to be napping." Gabriella pointed out. She was trying to sound cheerful, but was failing miserably.

"I guess so… Everything okay? You sound a bit upset…"

_Should she tell him_?

This was the perfect opportunity.

"Troy, I… uhm… I'm in the park. I was wondering if you'd want to take a walk with me."

"Oh… yeah! I'd love to. I'll bring the truck around and we can get something to eat. That sound good?"

Gabriella didn't really care. It was _important, _though, to seem cheerful and happy and so completely _Gabriellaesque _because she couldn't let Troy know. She couldn't let _anyone_ know.

She ended the conversation with nothing more than a simple "See you in a few minutes."

And then she cried and cried.

* * *

Sharpay said, "Ryan, this restaurant is so shabby."

Sharpay _meant_, "Ryan, this restaurant is so shabby. But that's why I'm not eating."

"Oh, come on, Sharpay. You can't tell me that didn't get sick of that hoity-toity Lava Springs food. I just wanted something… normal."

Sharpay said, "Of course I didn't get sick of the hoity-toity Lava Springs food."

Sharpay _meant_, "Of course I didn't get sick of the hoity-toity Lava Springs food. That could possibly be why I look like such a cow."

Ryan shrugged. He flashed a winning smile when the waitress came by to get their orders.

"For you, baby doll?" the tired-looking girl, who seemed to be about their own age, asked, pointing her pen at Ryan.

"Oh, well…" Ryan squinted to get a good look at the woman's name tag. "… Elaine, I'll just have a hamburger with a side of fries. What do you want, Sharpay?"

"Just a water."

"Alright, well, I'll be back with that in a minute!" Elaine slide her pencil into her ponytail and gave Ryan a wink before departing.

"Why aren't you eating?" Ryan asked, organizing all the colored packs of artificial sweetener.

"I already said why: this place is shabby. We could be getting in an extra hour of dance at the studio, but _no_. We're here."

Blue, yellow, pink. Ryan pushed the sweetener holder away. "You've been dancing a lot lately." Ryan's tone was so ambiguous, Sharpay couldn't tell if that had been a simple observation of some sort of accusation.

"Practice makes perfect." she said simply, flipping her cellphone open as if she's received a text.

Ryan was about to say something when he saw two familiar faces being seated. "Troy! Gabriella! Come sit with us!"

Sharpay rolled her eyes.

Troy said something to the hostess and pointed to the Evans twins. The hostess nodded and led Troy and Gabriella to the booth Ryan and Sharpay were sitting in.

"Your waitress will be with you shortly."

Troy's response was a charming smile; Gabriella stared off into space.

After a few minutes of awkward silence Troy said, "… Nice running into you two here…" in an attempt to start up a conversation. He tried to put his arm around Gabriella, but she squirmed away. The air between the four of them was heavy and stressful.

Even Sharpay noticed. She offered a pathetic smile and smoothed out Gabriella's messy hair. "You're looking a little sloppy right now." Though her action was kind, her tone was a bit sharp. Everyone saw that she was trying, though.

Gabriella gave a laugh that sounded more than a little forced. "Thanks." she muttered, staring intently at the salt shaker.

"So! You guys happy to be away from Lava Springs?" Ryan asked, also trying to make conversation.

Sharpay scoffed. "It's a shame they didn't get to see it from _our _perspective." Her tone indicated that she didn't really think it was a shame. Ryan gave her a strange sort of look. Her mood was flip-flopping at an alarming rate.

Another awkward silence.

"Well!" Elaine's cheerful tone cut into the uneasy air. "Here's your water, sweetie. I'll have your burger in a minute and--- Oh! Have you two ordered yet?"

"Uh, no…" Troy fidgeted in his seat. "What do you want, Gabriella?'

"Just a salad."

"Yeah, make that two."

Elaine gave Ryan yet _another _wink and trotted off.

"Good God…" Sharpay muttered, crossing her arms.

Troy made a pathetic attempt to hold Gabriella's hand, only t be denied when she slide her hands under the table.

Ryan noticed this; Sharpay was trying to act like she didn't care.

"Gabriella, are you---"

"I'm fine."

"You're acting awfully---"

"Troy, I'm fine! I just---" Gabriella's words were cut off when a sob caught itself in her throat. She almost-violently pushed out of the booth and took off towards the restroom.

"What the Hell?" Troy started to get up but Sharpay stopped him.

"Come on, Troy. Following her into the girls' bathroom isn't going to make anything better. Let me try." Before even waiting for Troy's approval, Sharpay slid out of the booth and walked with her usual flourish to the girls' restroom. She didn't try to approach Gabriella calmly; Troy had tried that and failed. "Gabriella, what is your _problem_?" she asked, barging into the stall the sobbing girl was hiding in.

"N-nothing's wrong…" Gabriella's reply was low and hoarse. "Nothing's wrong."

"That's a lie." Sharpay said, not even giving Gabriella a chance to defend herself. "Troy Bolton can read you like no one else and he saw that something was wrong with you."

"… Why do you even care, Sharpay?"

"Hmm…" Sharpay gave the question a lot of consideration. "Because I'm a very complex individual."

"Well, Sharpay, I'm_ not _a very complex individual, okay? There's not big secret or underlying problem. Sometimes I just feel like crying."

"If you insist. Now. Why don't you tell me what's _really _wrong?"

"_Nothing_."

Sharpay was growing bored with this. "Fine, then… Maybe you should just go home." she offered, wondering if that qualified as advice. "Do you want me to drive you? Troy and Ryan can… I dunno, bond or whatever males do."

Gabriella wiped her eyes. "You're sort of being… nice."

"Not nice. Just complex. Now let's go."

* * *

"Well…" Ryan said. "It's just you and me… How odd."

"Yeah. Odd."

"… You okay?"

No, Troy wasn't okay. Troy wasn't okay because Gabriella wasn't okay. And what was worse---- he had absolutely no idea what could be wrong with her.

"Maybe she's just stressed?" Ryan offered.

"Maybe… but she can always tell me that." Troy ran a nervous hand through his hair. "She can always tell me everything. She sounded so strange when she called me earlier. Frazzled. She never gets like this. Ever."

Ryan nodded, obviously taking in all this information. It seemed as if he genuinely cared. Troy knew that Gabriella and Ryan had developed a friendship over the summer. Troy liked Ryan; he really did. He was just difficult to talk to sometimes--- not because he was mean or anything…. Just because he had the same eyes as Sharpay.

And even if Ryan's expression was kind (which it often was) he still had the same cold eyes as his sister."

"… Ryan, you're a good guy, you know?"

Ryan shrugged and gave a bashful sort of smile. "I'm glad you think so."

* * *

Gabriella cried.

When she realized her mother wasn't home, she sobbed.

She stood in front of her mirror and stared her body down.

Her body.

It wasn't even _her _body anymore.

A simple walk had turned into this. When was she going to tell Troy? Was she _ever_ going to tell Troy? What would he saw, or do, or think? Was there anyone in her life she could tell?

Gabriella cried and she sobbed and she finally closed her eyes.

It was the most restless sleep she'd ever had.

* * *

Review, pleaseee. And I will love you guys forever.


	2. sunrise, sunset

* * *

_Chapter one. you're manic then you're depressed. do you ever feel okay?_

Was Sharpay complex or did she really just _want _to be?

Ryan was complex, she knew. Ryan wasn't _stupid_, just absent-minded. He was witty and clever. He was… observant, as he called it. "Observant" translated roughly to "obsessive-compulsive." He had medication for that.

But if it was really medication that made a person complex, Sharpay was set.

The entire Evans family was.

The family shrink would always say, "Sharpay is prone to…" as if he didn't want to commit her to one single disorder. "Sharpay is prone to manic fits and depressed phases." "Sharpay is prone to excessive spending."

While her brother, her poor brother, was defined by his disorder.

These were all Evans family secrets.

That sounded pretty complex.

Sharpay wondered if Gabriella was the same--- popping pills and keeping secrets. Then again, Sharpay (was trying to convince herself that she) didn't really care. Gabriella had no reason to be upset about anything. She had her perfect grades, her perfect body, and her perfect boyfriend.

When Sharpay looked in a funhouse mirror, the really scarey ones that distort _everything_, including the very basis of all things realistic, she saw Gabriella.

When she looked into the honest mirror in her bathroom, she saw the most imperfect human being on Earth.

More or less.

A bit "more" than "less."

_Sharpay was prone to extreme fits of jealousy. _

"You horrible, ugly girl," she whispered to her reflection. "What happened to being perfect?"

There was a knock on her bedroom door. "Sharpay? I just got home." came Ryan's voice. "Where did Mom and Dad go?"

"I don't know, Ry. You wanna come in here and tell me about your little bonding time with Golden Boy Bolton?"

The door slowly opened and Ryan took a few hesitant steps inside the room. "The way you talk about Troy confuses me." he said, sitting down on the bed.

"Why?" Sharpay snapped. That was a rather stupid topic to bring up.

"… You talk about him with all this contempt but you still want to be with him. I can tell, because of the way you look at him when you think no one's looking."

Sharpay shrugged and played with a strand of her hair. "I'm just a little upset at how stupid he can be sometimes." she muttered.

"He really seems to like Gabriella."

"That's the_ problem_, Ryan! God!"

Ryan seemed a bit stunned at Sharpay's outburst. "Sharpay, have you taken your me---"

"No."

"Sharpay!"

"Shut up!"

Ryan stood up and took a few more hesitant steps, this time in his sister's direction. "… Why are you always looking at yourself in the mirror?"

Sharpay rolled her eyes. "Because I'm just narcissistic like that."

The answer didn't satisfy Ryan. "Something going on with you." It wasn't a guess; it was a statement.

"Nothing's wrong!" Sharpay rolled her eyes again, only because she was starting to sound exactly like Gabriella.

"Sharpay, come on. We're twins. I can tell when something's wrong with you." The moment turned unexpectedly tender. "You're half of me, Sharpay."

Sharpay's expression softened. She put a cold hand on Ryan's thin arm. "I wish I could live up to everything the other half of you deserves." she said quietly.

"You do." Ryan insisted, mirroring Sharpay and placing his hand on her arm.

Ryan moved away from him quickly. "Ryan…" she started, but she left it at that.

"If this is about Troy---"

"It's not about Troy."

"Then please tell me what's wrong."

Sharpay needed to say something convincing; something that would get Ryan off her back, at least for a while. "I'm just… very worried about Gabriella, is all." That wasn't quite a lie, but not exactly the truth.

"Yeah., she seemed a bit… off. Probably stress. School's starting in just a week. Senior year. Everyone's gonna get a little stressed."

Sharpay knew better than that.

It was very obvious that she wasn't the best of friends with Gabriella, but she knew at least a little bit about the girl's personality. "It's funny…" she started, going over to her bed and falling back into the pile of blankets and pillows. Ryan followed suit.

"What's funny?" he asked, giving his sister's arm a pat.

"She doesn't even try to be perfect, but she is. That's just funny because some people really _do _try."

"I'm sure she tries very hard."

Maybe so.

But Sharpay tried harder.

* * *

Three new messages, Gabriella's phone said.

All three from Troy.

"Hey, Gabriella. I hope I'm not calling to late. Just, uh, call me back if you can." 10:47 P.M.

"Yeah, it's me… again. I really just want to talk to you… Call me back." 3:23 A.M.

"Hey. It's a bit early, but… just call me when you wake up. Okay? Bye." 7:35 A.M.

Normally, Gabriella would call Troy back in a heart beat. She would smile at the sound of his voice. Today, she didn't feel like doing that.

Her phone told her that it was 1:30 in the afternoon. She rarely ever slept that late.

Downstairs, Mrs. Montez was yelling, "Gabby! Wake up! It's too late to be sleeping!"

"Okay, Mom!" Gabriella yelled back, but she didn't get out of bed.

She was safe in her bed, the same bed she'd had since childhood.

No one could touch her.

No unwanted hands could graze her body.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, she flipped open her phone and called Troy. He answered on the first ring, giving a very frantic "Hello?!"

"Hey, Troy." She could feel the relieved smile taking over Troy's voice.

"Hey! Are you okay…?"

"Yeah. I was just feeling a little sick yesterday. That's all." Gabriella was a fairly good liar, but could she fool Troy?

"Oh!" Troy's sigh almost broke Gabriella's heart. "Well, I hope you're feeling better. … Do you want me to come over? You know, bring you something, or…?"

"No! No, I'm fine and I don't want to risk you getting sick."

"Oh." Troy sounded nothing less than disappointed. "That's fine, I guess. You just… rest up, okay? You'd better get to feeling better before school starts back…"

"Okay. Bye, Troy." Gabriella snapped her phone shut. She couldn't believe how patient and wonderful Troy was being, especially after the little blow-up last night.

"Gabby! Are you up yet?"

"Yes, Mom!" Gabriella yelled, but she couldn't bring herself to get out of bed.

* * *

Troy threw his phone on the floor, picked it up, dialed Gabriella's number, cleared it, and then called Ryan, who had a vaguely amusing ringback tone that Troy had never heard before. It was like a brief reminder that he was talking to someone who was submersed in a culture that was liked, but not always understood by Troy.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Ryan!" Troy put on his best enthusiastic voice.

"Oh, hey, Troy!" Ryan sounded equally enthusiastic, only perhaps a bit more genuine. "What's up?"

"Ah, nothing much… I guess I just wanted to… thank you… or whatever. You know, for being such a good sport and listening to me ramble about Gabriella for an hour. That must have been pretty lame for you."

"It's no problem, honestly. Have you talked to her today?"

And that's what Troy liked about Ryan: his amazing ability to be caring without being nosey. Troy felt like Ryan could be trusted, a characteristic Sharpay seemed to lack. "Yeah, I talked to her. She said she was sick."

"Oh, yeah…" Ryan's tone matched the perplexed, dumbfounded expression he had the tendency of displaying. "She looked a little pale last night and… disheveled. That happens, though."

"… You know, Ryan, you should let your sister keep you from being this nice."

Ryan was silent.

Troy was regretting that immensely. "Ryan, I di---"

"No, Troy. You're right. It's just… she's my sister. My better half."

"Your _better _half?"

"Yes."

"Are you hers?"

"I hope so."

Ryan's tone was melancholy. Had Troy just weaseled his way into a deep-rotted family issue? The beautiful Evans twins, with their ice-cold eyes and their headshot smiles. How strong was the force that bound them together?

"Yeah, I'm definitely sorry I said any of that." Troy mumbled.

"No, it's fine. But, really, why are we sitting around in all this negativity? Sharpay and I were supposed to see _Brideshead Revisited _at that artsy cinema downtown, but she was called up at the last minute to help teach a jazz class. You should come. I mean, you know… period dramas are always intriguing."

Troy thought about this. There was nothing wrong with trying to forget all of his woes for a while… and he _had _always wanted to go to that artsy cinema. "Yeah, I'll go. You want me to pick you up or what?"

"Yeah, that'll be cool. See you in a bit."

"Sweet. Bye."

Troy ended the call and let out an awkward sort of laugh. What was going on?

* * *

"So, what exactly are we seeing?" Troy asked, deciding not to waste any of his money on overpriced concessions. After all, his truck was still in need of basically everything. Popcorn could wait.

"_Brideshead Revisited_. It's about fitful British aristocrats. Very serious and whatnot." Ryan replied, trying to locate their auditorium. "Hmm. End of the corridor."

"So, there's no action? You know, _happiness is a warm gun, bang bang, shoot shoot? Or anything?" _

They started walking.

"Uh… no. Not at all."

"Huh."

"You'll like it. Promise."

The two sat through the movie without saying a single word. Troy squirmed--- but just a bit--- when the weak and tragically beautiful Sebastian Flyte killed the quiet, mysterious Charles Ryder.

Ryan let out a small sigh when Sebastian said that he loved his sister; the reason? She was so very much like himself.

But Troy did like the movie, just like Ryan had promised. "The characters…" he pointed out. "They were all so beautiful and miserable."

Beautiful and miserable, like the stunning Evans twins.

* * *

**Notes: Blah blah review, pleaseee. Full chapter title taken from "Sunrise, Sunset" by Bright Eyes.**


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